Polish Oświęcim (Auschwitz) fans display shocking "welcome" banner to visiting Berlin team
On Saturday in Oświęcim, Poland, the local hockey team Unia, the reigning Polish Hockey League champion, hosted German champion Eisbären Berlin in one of six Champions Hockey League games that day. In a game that was not particularly noteworthy, the visiting German team won 4-1.
The next morning, a photo from the stands began appearing on various social media accounts and European media outlets, revealing a banner unfurled by Unia fans that contained the phrases “Welcome to the city of your biggest crime,” and “German death camps.”
For context, the German name for Oświęcim is Auschwitz. Yes, that Auschwitz. Between 1940 and 1945, it is believed that over a million people were killed at the Auschwitz concentration camps, located on the outskirts of the city. Since World War II, the camps have been converted into a memorial and museum within the city of Oświęcim, which is a popular tourist destination.
In addition to the visiting German team, a contingent of Eisbären fans also made the trip to Oświęcim, about 550 kilometers away. There have been no reports of any trouble between the two groups of fans.
Despite the media attention, neither Unia Oświęcim nor Eisbären Berlin have publicly commented on the spectacle.
Because of the CHL’s "groupless" playing format, the two teams will not meet again in the competition. Oświęcim’s next home game is this coming Friday against Austrian club Red Bull Salzburg. The club’s final home game of this year’s CHL regular season will be on October 9 against another German team, the Straubing Tigers.
In the pan-European competiton’s previous nine seasons, it has had a Polish representative six times – Cracovia (Krakow) three times, GKS Tychy twice, and JKH GKS Jastrzębie once. All of those teams, along with Oświęcim, are located in south-central Poland close to the Czech and Slovak borders, where hockey is most popular in the country.
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